Rio 2016 operations have officially begun at the Brazilian Doping Control Laboratory ©Getty Images

Rio 2016 operations have officially begun at the Brazilian Doping Control Laboratory (LBCD) - less than two months after sporting drugs legislation was passed in Brazil ahead of a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) imposed deadline.

Brazil was one of six countries placed on a compliance "watch list" at the WADA Foundation Board meeting in Colorado Springs last November, with non-compliance threatened if changes were not made before March 18.

This was particularly hazardous in Brazil’s case as non-compliance would have involved the revoking of accreditation for the laboratory in Rio de Janeiro, where testing is due to take place during the Olympics and Paralympics.

It is estimated that 5,000 samples will be collected during the Olympics and around 1,200 during the Paralympics, generating more than 10,000 analyses in the process.

"We’re living on a different planet than before," Marco Aurelio Klein, national secretary of the Brazilian Doping Control Authority (ABCD), told The New York Times.

"We have a level of sophistication you see in laboratories in movies."

Klein added that the LBCD will be shaped by what happened at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, which according to an independent report commissioned by WADA saw officials at a Moscow laboratory destroy the samples of Russian athletes with the help of federal police.

"It’s an extraordinary manual of what not to do," he said.

"We reviewed all of our procedures after reading it."

It is estimated that 5,000 samples will be collected during the Olympics and around 1,200 during the Paralympics
It is estimated that 5,000 samples will be collected during the Olympics and around 1,200 during the Paralympics ©Getty Images

Costing approximately BRL200 million (£39.4 million/$56.9 million/€50 million), the LBCD at the Chemistry Institute of the Rio de Janeiro Federal University is made up of three floors of new scientific equipment.

Money has also gone towards the training of 96 technicians to collect and test blood and urine samples.

In August 2013, the LBCD's position as an accredited laboratory was revoked because it had reached the limit of points allowed in relation to the non-conformity of blind tests forwarded by WADA.

This led to authorities having to outsource drug testing to a laboratory in the Olympic capital Lausanne during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

However, a meeting was held with WADA in Canadian city Montreal in September 2013 and a fast-track solution was established so that the new LBCD could become accredited by the second half of last year.

The LBCD was reaccredited by WADA on May 13, 2015.

According to recent figures released by WADA, Brazil ranked ninth of 109 countries in doping violations in 2014, with 46 infractions.

Russia was first in the rankings with 148 infractions.